Exposing how oppressive cultural codes--encapsulated in buzzwords such as inclusion, diversity, social justice, appropriation--are constricting the vibrant intellectual life of the world's freest country, a renowned author and playwright examines how politics and cultural attitudes about rebellion have shifted in the U.S. throughout history.

Renowned author and playwright David Mamet decries how activists on the left are repressing free-thinking, freedom of speech, and the bohemian American spirit, in this hard-hitting, definitive account of how cultural commissars are trying to turn America into a homogenous state. The conservative right was once the party of moralistic stick-in the-muds, but now, they're the defenders of rebels and iconoclasts. How did this happen? In a broad-ranging...

David Mamet's scalding comedy is about small-time, cutthroat real estate salesmen trying to grind out a living by pushing plots of land on reluctant buyers in a never-ending scramble for their fair share of the American dream. Here is Mamet at his very best, writing with brutal power about the tough life of tough characters who cajole, connive, wheedle, and wheel and deal for a piece of the action -- where closing a sale can mean a brand new Cadillac...

Five unique short plays for television by one of America's most celebrated playwrights. A 'Waitress in Yellowstone' (or: 'Always Tell the Truth') is a parable about an honest waitress and a corrupt congressman. In Bradford, a new police chief arriving in a small New England town is plunged into the midst of its cozy secrets and uncovers the truth behind his predecessor's mysterious fatal hunting accident. The Museum of Science and Industry Story is...

The Woods, described by the Chicago Daily News as a beautifully conceived love story," is a modern dramatic parable in which a young man and woman who spend a night in his family's cabin experience passion, then disillusionment, but are in the end reconciled by mutual need. In Lakeboat, eight crew members aboard a merchant ship exchange their wild fantasies about sex, gambling, and violence. In Edmond, a man set morally adrift leaves an unfulfilling...

If theatre were a religion, explains David Mamet in his opening chapter, "many of the observations and suggestions in this book might be heretical." As always, Mamet delivers on his promise: in Theatre, the acclaimed author of Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed the Plow calls for nothing less than the death of the director and the end of acting theory. For Mamet, either actors are good or they are non-actors, and good actors generally work best without...

Best known for his precision-blade language and hot-button subject matter, David Mamet shows off a lighter side with his equally dexterous screwball comedy Keep Your Pantheon. Featuring an over-the-hill acting guru who lusts after both his toga-clad protégé Philius and a spot in the Sicilian Cork Festival, Mamet's play returns to the roots of comedy, paying homage to the Roman playwright Plautus, whose works also inspired Shakespeare's The Comedy...

In this new drama about ethical boundaries and pressures of the legal system, David Mamet digs deep into American corruption and the degradation of social mores. The Penitent follows the story of an acclaimed psychiatrist who refuses to testify in court on behalf of his patient -- an act that might undo everything he's worked for.

Spanning centuries and continents, Mamet uses war and its players to explore, among other themes, redemption and forgiveness as they unfold in the context of conflict in the form of three novellas. In The Redwing, the first of the three novellas, a 19th-century Secret Service naval officer turned prisoner, then novelist, and finally memoirist recounts his own transformations during the course of his service and imprisonment. The protagonist in Notes...